A New Life
by Shannon Falseto
Summary: Christine Stratton had always been satisfied with her life, but she knew something was missing. she needed friends. so she changed her self, but she soon finds out that being popular isent everything she thought it would be. set in lily and james time.


**Ok this chapter is sort of a prologue, I'm calling it chapter one, but the real story starts next chapter at Hogwarts.**

**I would just like to say that the Stratton family is not based after the Weasalys, lol**

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that JK Rowling does.

I sat in the Gryffindor common room reading in my favorite chair by the fire. It was the end of term my 5th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and I couldn't have been more pleased about it. My fifth year had been like all the previous year there. Lonely. Yes, I certainly got along with everyone, but they were more of…acquaintances. The girls in my dorm were all very nice to me, especially Lily Evans. Still there was no real friendship, what the others showed me was just simple politeness. As much as I wanted it-needed it, I could not find a true friend.

That night in the Gryffindor common room I sat up very late, contemplating why. What was wrong with me, why didn't I have any friends? Was it something I had said, maybe it was because I was muggle born? No that wasn't it, Lily was muggle born and she was very popular. '_Maybe it's the way you look'_ a small voice said in my mind. I mulled that over, maybe it was. I was defiantly over weight, and my curly auburn hair was cut short and always held tight in a thick frizzy ponytail. I was far too short; 16 and only 5'4 and not chance of getting any taller. I sighed, I guess now that I thought about it the one thing that I liked about myself was my eyes. My fathers eyes, dark and mysterious, almost black. I thought that was the only beautiful thing about me.

Sitting there that warm summer night I knew that I couldn't stand another year like this. I couldn't live through another year unnoticed. I was going to change myself. I would have friends. I would finally fulfill that desperate need that everyone has: to be accepted. Not just by your family, but by your peers, by your friends. I knew that some how I would make a mark on Hogwarts, and I vowed that I, Christine Stratton, would not give up until my existence was known by everyone!

I remember that summer very clearly as the strangest summer of my young existence. I had spent most of my previous summers with my brothers, swimming, playing, and getting into trouble. Which was easy for me because I grew up in a muggle family with seven brothers. No, that's not a typo; I said seven, all boys, all older than me. Its kind of a funny story really, I think you might be interested in hearing. You see my parents had always wanted a daughter, but after three bouncing baby boys, they started to get a litte - er discouraged. Nevertheless, being the wonderfully determined people that they were they vowed that they would not stop having children until they had a daughter. Well they succeeded in having seven boys before they finally had a girl, me. My father says another boy never disappointed them, and I believe that. There is so much love in this family the reader might find it sickening. The sad part of the story is that my mother died giving birth to me. I suppose it was bitter sweet for my father, finally having a daughter but losing your wife in the process. I don't remember her, obviously, but growing up I almost felt as if I'd known her. My brothers who were old enough told me stories of her; she was a wonderful woman, loving to all her children and her husband.

Things around the Stratton house were rather tight most of the time, and understandably so. With so many children and one source of income there was no room for luxuries. Jeffery, my youngest brother, and I would often search the neiborhood for odd jobs that we could do to help the family. We often cooked dinner also, when the older brothers weren't around to do it. Unfortunately, we were too young to make anything but what we could put in the microwave and my father had to eat chicken nuggets far too often. He was always thankful though, no matter how tired he was of chicken nuggets.

I think cooking dinner was the only thing remotely considered "feminine" that I had ever done. I just had no one to show me how to be "girly." My brothers taught me to be a tomboy; I played sports instead of dolls. I grew up with grass stains permanently attached to my knees. And that was fine with me, I loved to be with my brothers, I never thought it was a problem. That's probably the biggest factor in why my summer weird.

I was so determined to change myself, but doing that meant leaving everything I knew behind and entering a strange, foreign world. Girl's world. It was probably the scariest thing I had ever done at that point. I had no idea what I was in for. Even at Hogwarts, being in a dorm with all those girls hadn't changed me. I knew nothing about make-up, clothes, hair. This was going to be a hard summer.

Summer. That meant no magic. I had gotten so used to using magic that I always had a hard time coming home and not using it. However, this year was worse, I had hard work to do, and I had to do it as a muggle. And on an extremely small budget. I had saved every last cent I could, from my birthday, and Christmas, I didn't even go to Hogsmeade once that year. Even so, it wasn't a lot, and I had had to go to Gringotts to exchange my knuts and sickles for muggle money, and found that I had a lot less than I had expected. I was going to have to be very careful.

I entered the store tentatively, choking on the strong scent of flowery perfume. '_What are you doing?'_ a voice screamed in my ear '_go back now!'_ I pushed it away.

"Hello! May I help you dear?" I jumped and turned around. Ick, was this what I was supposed to look like? Her hair was bundled on her head, dangerously high; it looked as if it might fall over at any moment, leaving the woman half-bald. Her neon make-up was put on so thick that it looked as though she never washed her face at night but woke up everyday and applied a new layer year after year.

I had to stop myself from wincing and instead replied to her at politely as I could muster, "n-no thank you, I'll just have a look around."

I'll admit I must have looked odd standing in the middle of the isle wearing some of my brothers hand me downs and staring at the lipstick, perplexed. At school I wore my uniform most of the time so no one had really seen me like this.

I sat in the middle of the isle. "Where am I supposed to start?" I said a bit too loud. I sighed and grabbed the nearest tube. Lipstick. '_Ok so now which color do I get, there's too many!"_ I thought, grabbing another tube. Cherry red or plum purple. Interesting names for make-up. But I still didn't know which one to get. I needed help.

"Can I help you?" I looked up into the face of a different, bored looking employee. Amy, I read on her nametag.

"Err, well the thing is…" I was horrible at asking for help, a huge problem of mine. I made a mental note to work on that. "I really, just don't know which to pick." The chuckled knowingly and I blushed. I hated it when I blushed.

"Why don't you try a fashion magazine, they usually have plenty of ideas." I mentally slapped myself. Of course, why hadn't I thought of that before? I quickly got up, thanking Amy briefly and rushing away to find the magazine section. There were plenty of magazines, on every subject, there was an especially large amount of fashion type ones. With stories like "Fine Your Summer Colors" and "Make-up for Every Mood." Jackpot. I could not make up my mind on which was best; I was new at this after all. So I decided that my budget allowed to more than one, and I hurried back to the make-up isle with three different magazines in my hand. I didn't have a lot of time and I had already wasted much of it. I had to be home before my father or he would surly accuse me of stealing (or else he would ask me who I was and what I had done with his all too tomboyish daughter.) I had to move fast, but there was still so much to choose from. Finally, I decided to play it safe, I used most of my savings on a large array of make up in different sizes and colors. This might not have been the smartest thing I could have done, as I still didn't have "acceptable" clothes to wear. _'Oh well'_ I pushed the thought out of my head _'I'll have to think of something latter.'_

That night after thoroughly reading the fashion magazines, I decided to test my new image. I really hadn't liked most of the girls in the ads; they wore too much make-up and were way too skinny for their own good. That's not what I wanted; I wanted to lose weight but not look anorexic, just…healthy. And I was starting to. The first day home I had started to run, every morning, before anyone was awake. I liked it that way, it was peaceful and nobody stared at you. I started of with short distances and found out quickly that I was an extremely slow runner. By the time I was ready to test out my new image I was running about 2 miles every morning, though I was still very slow. Also, I started eating healthier, more fruits and veggies, less soda and candy.

I looked in the mirror before starting to get ready. It had been a month since school had ended and I had dropped at least twenty pounds already. I saw the fat that had once prevented me looking in the mirror was now shrinking down and turning somewhat in to muscle. The clothes that I had picked out (to my amazement and delight) were now a couple of sizes to big. I was to excited to see the problem. I had nothing to where. I couldn't very well do my face all up with make-up and come down stairs wearing my brother's shorts. Bugger. I quickly rummaged through my draws. That was no good. Opening my closet franticly, I contemplated wearing my school uniform; at least it had a skirt. Then, there it was. I remembered it slightly as a gift from a distant relative. It had been a bit too small for me, but maybe now, just maybe… I slipped the thin yellow sundress over my head easily. It fit, though it was still a little tight around the chest. I didn't like it much, especially the color. It wasn't really "my style", but then wasn't that what I was trying to get away from?

This was it, I put some light make up on, I didn't want to look anything like those models. I tried to brush my hair down, but it just frizzed and rebelled. "Ug!" The brush was stuck. Giving up, I forced it into its usual ponytail, it was going to have to do for now.

This was it, the decisive moment. I walked down the stairs and turned to face the kitchen.

Dads back was turned towards me. "Christine, is that you? Matt called; he and terry are bringing the kids over for dinner. Will you help m-" he had turned around and promptly dropped the salad bowl, smashing it into a million pieces. I blushed and stared down at my shoes. It couldn't be that bad could it? I mean it couldn't be worse than it was before. _'Thank god he's holding back his laughter; I'm going to die if he laughs…'_

"Hey da- oh my god…" it was my oldest brother Matt. O god, would the humiliation ever end. I heard my sister-in-law, Terry walk in to the scene. I had had a great stroke of luck when my brother married Terry. One, I was no longer the only girl in the family. Even if we weren't around each other a lot, I really liked having another girl there. Two, Terry was a witch. In fact, she had attended Hogwarts as well. There was finally someone who understood me. My family loved me no matter what I new that, but when Terry came, some little part of me that had been missing sort of filled up. I feared this time, though, not even she would under stand.

"Wow." That was it; it officially could not get any worse. "You look amazing Chris!"

My head shot up, I must be going deaf. "W-what?" I shuddered. This had to be some kind of joke.

"Look at you!" She gasped, "I can't believe I'm seeing this!" She ran to give me a hug. She whipped out her wand and with a flick of the wrist, the salad bowl was repaired and lifted back to the table. The salad itself was unsaveable.

At that point, it seems that the rest who were present suddenly woke up and were walking towards me. It was so obvious they didn't think me pretty. But at that moment my father did something that shocked me, something I never thought I would ever seen him do. He cried. I watched a silent tear roll down his cheek, and a twinge of guilt hit me, I didn't mean to make him cry. I stared at him, I couldn't help it, I was so surprised to see him cry.

"You look so much like your mother…" did I hear him right? Me? Look like that beautiful woman in all those pictures? It could never be. I could never looking like her, I just couldn't. I tried to push the thought to the back of my mind but failed miserably. She had beautiful auburn hair, mine was so plain. She had shimmering blue eyes, mine were so dark. She was tall, I was so short. I looked nothing like her. I didn't want to think about it, I did not want to think about how ugly I still was. I forced my thoughts down and went to dinner.

**About 2 months latter**

I stared at myself in the mirror and sighed. Term was about to start and I had certainly gotten down to an ideal size and weight. I tugged at my hair sadly. It was at my shoulders, nowhere near the length I had wanted it to be. My hair was really the only thing that was missing from my transformation. Terry had brought me shopping earlier, and I now had plenty of new clothes to fit my new body. My makeup skills had also evolved greatly over the summer. I had almost everything, but there was something missing. I just didn't feel pretty. I did not feel good about myself at all.

I turned from the mirror and flopped down on my bed. There was only three days left of summer. I was so bored, so ready to get back to Hogwarts, but I was scared to death also. What if it didn't matter? What if they didn't like me any way? Maybe though, I would have friends. I would be truly happy if I had friends.

"Hey you!" I looked up startled.

"Hey Terry." I said wearily. I pulled out a hair band and tried to fight my rebellious tangles into it.

"Maybe I can help…"

"Help with what?" I snapped, annoyed. My hair was being particularly stupid today.

"With your hair. Here let me see." She pulled out her wand and I winced. I did not want green hair.

Quietly she mumbled a spell and tapped my head. An odd tingling sensation ran down the back of my head. I must say, it was the most peculiar sensation I had ever felt. I closed my eyes, it was hard to explain. It didn't exactly hurt, but it certainly wasn't the most pleasant of feelings. It stopped as quickly as it started.

"Well?" I said impatiently. She had a very stupid smile on her face.

"Look!" She pointed to the mirror. I glanced hesitantly, and had to do a double take. My frizzy hair had turned into almost perfect ringlets, and they had grown…down to my waist! I gasped; this must be a dream…

"You can thank me latter!" She called from the hallway, laughing. "I have to go pick up the boys at football practice."

"O-ok." I whispered, still staring at my hair. I was afraid to touch it; afraid it might suddenly disappear or fall out. Walking into the hall, I decided I needed a little time to myself, somewhere, where none of my brothers would find me. Somewhere I hadn't been for a very long time…

Carefully I climbed the stairs into the attic; they were wobbly and I didn't know when the last someone used them was. I did know that I hadn't been up there for several years. I guess nothing too life changing had happened; I didn't need to go up there. Coughing, I entered the dusty attic; it obviously hadn't been cleaned for quite some time. My feet carried me automatically to the spot I always went. A hidden section way in the back; that's where my mother's things were kept. My father had tried to hide them, I could tell. But I had found them, and it was like a comfort area for me. I went there when I needed to think, and I even talked to her some times. She was an excellent listener.

I sat carefully in a seat I had created out of old clothes. Her pictures lay before me; they had always been my favorite part. I looked at a wedding picture. My father was spinning her around in his arms. She was radiant, beautiful. _'More beautiful than I could ever hope to be.'_ I sighed; I still secretly blamed myself for her death. It was one of those things that I would never tell anyone. Ever. I had many secrets like that, I could never tell anyone…

CRASH! A large pile of clothes fell before I could catch them. Hastily I began to shove them back into a pile when I saw it. A trunk. I was sure I had never seen it before. I picked it up easily, it was light but there had to be something in it. I turned it slowly and noticed a lock. It wouldn't budge. I groaned, I had to know. '_A little magic will be fine.'_ I knew I would get a warning, but it would only be my first. They didn't expel students for a first offense, did they?

"Alohamora." I whispered pointing my wand. It clicked, and I pulled of the lock. I could not for the life of my figure out why I was so nervous. It creaked open; obviously, it hadn't been open for a long time. There it was…a dress. That's what made me so nervous, a dress? I was admittedly disappointed. I pulled it up by its think straps. It was beautiful, very, very elegant. Midnight blue and long. Had it been my mothers? I couldn't stand to leave it locked up in this dusty old attic. I had to take it with me.

I pulled away from a long hug, and smiled. My sister-in-law smiled back at me. We were at the barrier of platform 9 ¾.

"Good luck. You look great." She said lovingly. I was so lucky to have her in my life right now. I don't know what I would have done without her. I turned to my father.

"Be good. No more unauthorized magic." I winced a little; I had gotten into trouble when I got a warning from the Ministry of Magic. I didn't tell my father about the trunk, some how I just couldn't. I told him that I lost the key to my diary and I had had to unlock it some how. That was a straight out lie. I didn't even keep a diary.

"I will." I hugged my brothers and said good-bye to everyone, then turned to face the barrier. Someone touched my shoulders.

"Do you want me to go through with you?" It was Terry.

"No thanks, I'll be fine." But I didn't know if I would be fine. I was going into something completely different, completely foreign. It was now or never. I took a deep breath and stepped easily into the barrier.

**Ok everyone, here it is, chapter one, hope you like!**

**Ps. The next chapter may take a while, I'm going away, I'll keep writing while I'm away but I'll have to wait to type them when I get home.**


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